Ok, it’s starting to feel a bit crowded in here.

This occasionally feels impossible. I’ve got three projects going right now, and all of them have to happen in a tiny bindery under a lofted bed. Without really acknowledging it, we are starting to talk about moving into a bigger flat. Until that day, however, I’ve got to find a way to keep a lot of things going at once in a very small space. Sometimes the crush of this little hole of a bindery makes me feel itchy and crazy. Last week while I was hunting around for some clean square footage to work on, I found something horrible.

Mold.

England, you have some nice things on offer. I like the public footpaths, for example. I like the health care. I like The Archers. But there is a price to pay. Everything is wet here. And it is cold. And it is moldy, moldy, moldy. Mold is the book-killer. And here it was, quietly sneaking up on my ingenious paper storage area like kudzu taking a farmer’s field.

Thank god I found it in time, but it cost me a full day of work. I scrubbed the walls. I ransacked the apartment for more storage (blood from a stone.) I spent £30 (roughly fifteen hundred bucks*) on shipping tubes. I cranked up the heat, left everything open and clean, and got on with what was left of the day.

While I had the momentum, I emptied out my filing cabinet, purged the little bindery micro-cave of unnecessary detritus, and organized three projects into three little drawers.

Things feel a little better this week than last week and nothing valuable is smooshed against a damp, exterior wall. But someday in the not too distant future, I am going to have to start working in a bigger space. It can’t go on this way forever. Over and out.

*that was a hilarious joke and not an accurate currency conversion.

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6 comments on “Ok, it’s starting to feel a bit crowded in here.”

Deborah Huntington

January 21, 2013

Sarah, thank goodness you discovered this nasty intruder in time! And I do like your new look – are those checks hanging on the right hand side of the clothesline? That’s a great way to decorate! You should get more of those! Maybe one day you’ll have enough business that you can put the checks on the clothesline and then crank the line slowly and directly to the bank! In the meantime you’ve got some very fine “aspirational decor” here. Good luck with the thinking about moving!